IAAF to come up next week with set of regulations for Russia’s ‘neutral-status’ athletes

MOSCOW, December 6. /TASS/. The International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) will come up by mid-December with a set of regulations regarding the so-called neutral-status participation of Russian athletes in international tournaments, a spokesperson for the All-Russia Athletics Federation told TASS on Thursday.

“We received today a reply from the international federation,” ARAF’s press secretary Natalia Yukhareva said. “Our colleagues will provide us with the set of regulations next week.”

The IAAF Council decided after its session on Tuesday in Monaco to extend the membership suspension of the ARAF citing a number of criteria, which are still needed to be implemented by the Russian side, including the repayment of the $2.76 million debt.

In 2015, the WADA (World Anti-Doping Agency) Independent Commission carried out an investigation into the activities of ARAF, the Moscow Anti-Doping Laboratory, the RUSADA (Russian Anti-Doping Agency) and the Russian Sports Ministry.

The commission accused certain athletes and sports officials of doping abuse and involvement in other activities related to violations of international regulations on performance enhancing substances.

The work of the Moscow anti-doping laboratory and RUSADA was eventually suspended. The IAAF in turn decided to suspend ARAF’s membership in the global governing body of athletics and put forward a host of criteria, which the Russian ruling body of track and field sports was obliged to implement in order to restore its membership in the global federation.

The IAAF, however, permitted clean athletes from Russia to participate in the international tournaments under the neutral status or the Authorized Neutral Athlete (ANA) until the membership of the ARAF was reinstated.

Russia’s track and field athletes participated in the 2018 European Championships under a neutral flag. The country’s track and field athletes won one gold, three silver and two bronze medals at the 2018 European Championships, but they were not included in the overall medals standings due to their neutral status.

The WADA Executive Committee announced on September 20 that RUSADA was again in compliance with the Code of the global agency and its membership was reinstated but Russia’s membership with the IAAF still remains suspended.

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